Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Celebrating lottery winners accidentally blew up house

Two brothers who were celebrating a $75,000 winning Kansas lottery ticket by purchasing marijuana and meth accidentally blew up their house on Friday, said Sgt. Bruce Watts of the Wichita Police Department.

The explosion sent one of the brothers, a 27-year-old, to the hospital, where he remains in serious but stable condition with second-degree burns on his hands, arms and chest. The other brother was sent to jail, Watts said. The brothers were in a house in at about 7pm on Friday, Watts said.

One of the brothers went to the kitchen to refuel the butane torches they planned to use to light their bongs. He emptied a couple of large cans of butane lighter fluid, leaking butane into the air. “The butane vapor reached the pilot light in the furnace, and as you might expect, ka-boom,” Watts said. The victim was wearing a lottery T-shirt during the explosion.

The victim’s girlfriend loaded him and some children into a car and took him to the Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis emergency room, where she dropped him off and left. Officers went to the house with a warrant, where the other brother ran out, admitting he had marijuana and methamphetamine. He was arrested.